A/N

So yeah, this concludes the first part of the story. And it was pretty Jaune-centric. But the focus will shift onto Ruby and her team now, although Jaune and the others will still have a role to play, especially with the Vytal Festival coming up.

I will be taking a short break however, only for a week, than the next one will be up the following Thursday.

So, please review, please criticize.

The Forever Fall.

"So... sap?"

Professor Goodwitch turned away for a few moments, pinching her nose and loosing a sigh before turning back to Yang. "Yes, Ms Xiao Long. We are collecting sap. We are not fighting Grimm. Or working on combat, or learning about auras and semblances. Just. Sap. Go back to your team."

She suppressed a exasperated sigh as the bubbly girl grinned, still wondering how she could have ever acted the same way when she was younger.

Yang stroked her chin for a few seconds, staring at the empty jar in her hand before looking back up and nodding eagerly, sticking her thumb up. "Neat!"

Whistling a jaunty tune she marched off, waving back at the Professor before rejoining Ruby and Weiss. She grinned at the star-struck look Ruby still held even after being in the forest for more than a hour.

She nudged her sister in the side. "Remember the family trip dad took us on?"

"Barely, I was like three years old." Ruby muttered, lost in the swathes of crimson leaves dancing in the air, slowly spiralling onto the ground to add to the innumerably thick carpet covering the entirety of the forest floor.

Nearby Weiss had a delicate green tinge to her, shuddering as she scraped thick and gluggy red sap from the bodie of one of the tree's. She blanched, sticking out her tongue as she watched the sap slowly pool inside her jar, congealing into a solid mass. She quickly screwed the cap on, before glancing over her shoulder and scowling at them. "Ruby! Don't suppose you want to help me collect some of this - ugh - sap?"

"Right. Coming!" Ruby left Yang with a grin and hurried over with her empty jar, brandishing a scooping knife as she stopped at the tree Weiss was working on.

Yang hummed under her breath as she slowly wandered over, her thoughts elsewhere as she popped off the golden lid on her jar with a short grunt, lowering her nose down to sniff at the dark red sludge collected inside.

A heady aroma filled her nostrils, and she narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she dipped her finger in and scooped out a little blob. Sucking it off her finger, her eyes widened at the utterly sweet taste filling her mouth, and she blinked twice at the jar before putting the lid back on.

She smirked at the thought of getting Blake to try some of the sap, only to realise that she couldn't see her cat-eared partner anywhere amidst the crimson trees and black trunks of the forest. Yang frowned as she stopped behind Ruby and Weiss while they placed their jars into a white case.

"Hey, has anyone seen Blake?"

Weiss glanced up at her. "Probably doing that ninja thing from those books of hers. She shouldn't run off on her own, there's Grimm in these forests."

Yang's face fell. She looked up, noticing that Pyrrha was off on her own, focusing intently on scraping the sap from it into a jar in her hands. She arched a eyebrow she looked over her shoulder at Jaune and shook her head, storming off further into the trees, leaving Jaune to sigh and slump to the ground while Lie Ren and Nora busied themselves with a nearby tree.

She decided to go over, placing her hands on her hips and looking down at the blonde boy as he stared forlornly up at the crimson canopy, his nose twitching as a leave tickled it.

Yang whistled. "Nice going, slick."

"- I was just trying to apologise." He muttered, his shoulders sagging as he sat up and loosed a sigh.

The tall blonde rolled her eyes and leaned down. Jaune yelped as her hand gripped his collar and pulled him to his feet in one swift move. He glanced at her, before looking off into the leafy crimson expanse, catching sight of Pyrrha only for a brief moment before she disappeared behind a cluster of bushes.

He grimaced, only to get a punch in the shoulder from Yang. "Ow!" Jaune seethed and rubbed his shoulder, shooting her a look. "Can't you see I've been beaten up enough already!"

"But you haven't hit rock bottom just yet."

Jaune froze for a moment, turning to her with a curious look and forgetting his shoulder. "What?"

Yang grinned. "Ozpin wouldn't have picked you for team leader if you gave up this easily now. Am I right?"

Despite his thoughts, Jaune found that her words actually made sense. For a few seconds he stared wordlessly at her, furrowing his eyebrows as he stared down at his feet. Jaune looked back up at her. "I... suppose."

She pushed him forwards, prodding him towards Lie Ren and Nora. "So get over there and talk to your team!"

Before he could protest she had already moved off back to where Ruby and Weiss were, leaving him to slowly, and against his better judgement, approach Nora and Lie Ren. The bubbly girl giggled and waved at him as she hanged upside down on one of tree's branches.

He uncertainly returned the wave, before holding his elbow and staring at his feet. "Uh, so... Any idea where Pyrrha went, guys?"

Lie Ren glanced over his shoulder at Jaune. "So, you're finally asking us for help?"

Jaune's face fell. "I- well- guess-" He stopped at the calm smirk on the stoic boy.

Hanging upside down from a branch above where Lie Ren was scraping ropey clumps of sap into his jar, Nora gave two thumbs up, her face cherry red. She clicked her tongue and raised her arms, pointing past him. "That-a-way, Jaune!"

"Yeah. Thanks." Jaune found himself gulping as his legs took him away from them and into the forest, leaving them behind. He tried to clear his thoughts by listening to the songbirds nesting in the trees above, or focusing on the leaves that constantly fell wherever he went.

The boy sighed to himself, thoughts soon turning back to the constant problem on his mind, and what his parents would do if they ever found out that he had-

"You idiots!" Jaune stopped at the sound of Cardin's enraged shouting, and even worse, the low hum of a heavy metal object being swung through the air while someone dodged it, grunting with exertion each time.

He followed the sounds with a grimace, froze in place as he watched Pyrrha dodge around Cardin's mace by a hairs breadth, while his teammates stood on the edges of the clearing. The boy frowned at the smear of red goopy stuff on the elaborate and clunky breastplate the brute wore.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune whispered when a twig underneath his foot snapped cleanly in two. He lifted up his leg and swore under his breath, ducking down behind the bush so Cardin couldn't spot him. Instead Pyrrha glanced in his direction, distracted long enough to have Cardin chuckle and swing his mace right into her stomach.

His eyes widened as she crumpled to the bed of crimson leaves, and Cardin lifted his mace with a sadistic smirk.

Focusing, Pyrrha breathed out a single breath just as Russel Thrush loosed a triumphant yell with his tomahawk ready to strike. Pyrrha's elbow crashed into his face and she swept his legs out from under him, before putting her shoulder behind Akouo and pushing with all her strength, sending the scrawny boy crashing into the other members of Cardinal barring Cardin.

The huge brute spared them a annoyed glance before charging, lifting the head of his great mace off the ground behind him and smashing down towards her at terrifying speed.

Pyrrha grunted as she raised her shield to absorb the meteoric impact, her arm going a little numb. She gritted her teeth and pushed Cardin back, spurring him to retreat briefly and rejoin the rest of his recovering team.

Her hand twitched, knowing that she could draw Miló within a second to give Cardin a taste of his own medicine. She grunted, weathering the rapid-fire blows Cardin rained down against her shield.

"It was real stupid of you to go off on your own, Nikos. But now we get the chance for a little group chat about interrupting me and Jauney boy!"

"You've been singling him out from day one. You're nothing but a bully, Cardin."

He chuckled. "What can I say? He just brings that side out in me." She narrowed her eyes and focused as he brought his mace out in front of him, and prepared for the inevitable rain of hits that jarred her arm each time.

Cardin flashed a little grin down at her, tempered with a series of frustrated growls when he realized she wasn't going to budge.

Her eyes flicked downwards, catching his fist swinging up towards her stomach. Pyrrha grunted as she blocked another blow from his mace, keeping her shield under the mace as she twisted around his side, dodging his fist while grabbing the shaft of his weapon at the same time.

She wrenched him off-balance, slipping her shield free of the heavy macehead and slamming it into his shoulder with a resounding clang, sending Cardin scrambling away with a grunt.

"You think you're too good to even use a weapon against me?!"

Pyrrha answered with a smirk, loosing a tired breath and glancing at her shield. "This is my weapon."

She went to step forward before hearing something coming through the air at her. Pyrrha quickly stepped backwards, arching a eyebrow as a glass jar shattered on the ground where she once stood, the pungent aroma of the sap filling her nostrils.

Cardin growled as he charged forward, raising his mace when another smashed onto his chest plate, painting a blood-red smear on the golden bird emblazoned there.

He stopped in his tracks, staring the member of his team. "You idiots!" he bellowed, getting them to drop the jars they were hefting for another throw.

Blinking through the sweat she balanced on the balls of her feet for a second before springing forwards, raising her shoulder to crash into Cardin's breastplate while he was distracted-

A snapping twig got her attention and she glanced over at it's source, surprised to see Jaune standing there. Cardin chuckled as something heavy whistled through the air with a low hum, snapping her back into reality with bone-crushing force.

Her mouth flew open as a gasp tore out of her as a field of red filled her vision, Cardin's smirk growing bigger as she crumpled to the ground, instinct immediately making her curl up, everything in disarray and pain.

Pyrrha shivered, her eyes wide as she noticed the brute lifting his mace overhead, looming over her with a sadistic grin.

"Cardin! Stop!"

She hardly heard Jaune's panicked tone over her heavy breaths, her mind fogged over as she worked on trying to focus her swimming vision.

"Ursa!"

A blood-curdling roar shook the leaves around her. Cardin's eyes widened as a enormous shadow loomed over the pair of them. He took a step back in fear, mace clunking to the ground next to her shoulder before a huge mass of pitch black muscle lumbered over her and patted the brute away with a casual flick of it's paw, roaring a challenge to everyone in the clearing.

Jaune froze where he stood, eyes flicking down to where Pyrrha laid still on the ground as the Ursa Major looked at him with savage red eyes, it's face completely covered in a bone-like mask, with crimson markings.

It lumbered away, sniffing at the air before growling and making its way towards where Cardin had landed. The Ursa Major opened its maw in anticapation, revealing lines and lines of hooked and gnashed teeth as its breaths came out in steamed wisps.

The boy set his sights on Pyrrha, blocking out the huge Grimm focusing on Cardin as he came over. As he neared her, Cardin screamed. And Jaune stopped in his tracks with a stricken look. Paled, he glanced over his shoulder, the hairs on his neck standing up at the sight of the Ursa Major towering over the bully, bellowing triumphantly.

His world slowed, and he glanced down at Pyrrha for a single second. Then back at Cardin.

Jaune closed his eyes and nodded. Every single thought in his skull screamed at him to stop this but he put them out of mind, even though he agreed that all Cardin was good for was monster-chow. But as he drew his sword and extended his shield, beating the flat of the blade against it as he ran around the Ursa Major's side, he realised that may have been too dumb for his own good.

He slid to a stop over Cardin, ignoring the surprised yelp from the brute as he silently held his shield over his head, screwing his eyes shut in time for the thunderous blow to come.

Everything stopped in a instant.

First thing Jaune felt next was surprise. Surprise that he was still breathing, surprise that he wasn't remotely dead. The first thing he felt was a tingling sensation enveloping his entire body, and the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the pure white glow covering him.

The Ursa Major roared in frustration as it pushed downwards, using both paws but getting nowhere with the attempt. The crescent moon emblazoned on the face of his shield shined like a furious star.

Behind him Cardin whimpered as he scrambled backwards, leaving Jaune to realize that he was currently holding up a four-ton mass of raging muscle and claws with only his kite shield in between him and it.

"Oh... you're pretty big-" It roared, rage fueling the swipe it batted him to the ground with. His head swam as he fought to focus, managing to tuck into a roll and pop back up, slashing his sword wildly at it's side, slicing off a few bony spikes.

The Ursa screeched and raged as it whirled around and rammed its armored head into the boy's chest, shunting him off his feet. He rolled immediately, the leaves rustling as its forelegs stomped down inches from his face. He popped back up, glancing behind him and immediately running around the Ursa's opposite side to lead it away from Pyrrha as she slowly recovered.

He skidded to a stop, rapping his sword against his shield again to attract it's attention. The Ursa Major growled as it faced him, only a second passing before it began a ground-shaking charge.

Jaune narrowed his eyes, sparing a quick glance at Pyrrha before taking his chances and charging as well, keeping his shield up and blade by his side, lifting it up in preparation for a slash at the beast's neck.

Suddenly it reared up on its hindquarters to its full height, making him stumble to a stop. Jaune exhaled and yelled, thrusting the tip of his sword at the beast's exposed chest without noticing it was about to attack him.

Pyrrha's breath caught as she saw this, and grunted as she lifted up her arm. Her eyes narrowed as she focused all of her attention on his shield, taking a deep breath and feeling a familiar tingle down her arm as a soft grey energy surrounded it for a brief few seconds.

Too late Jaune saw the claws in the corner of his eye, but was already commited to his attack when a black energy surrounded his shield, making his skin tingle and armor shake and rattle. He grunted as his shield moved of its own accord, angled perfectly to deflect the beast's sharp claws.

The Ursa Major roared in surprise when its blow glanced off the shield, sending it off-balance as Jaune's own blade whipped through its exposed throat. It's last roar was cut off, as was its head.

The giant headless body fell backwards, shaking the ground.

Breathing heavily, Jaune didn't realize what happened for a few seconds. Blinking twice he shook his shield back into a sheath, staring in wonder at the giant he had just downed.

"Woah." he breathed, just as Cardin slowly edged over, staring at the dead Ursa as well.

"Jaune- you- you-"

His eyes flashed as he slowly turned to Cardin. "Go near me or my friends again Cardin, and you'll regret it." Jaune narrowed his eyes, clenching his hands as Cardin's eyes widened in shock and surprise for a few moments, before he nodded shakily.

Jaune turned and moved away, leaving Cardin to stare stricken at the bloody red stump where the Ursa Major's head used to be.

As the boy turned to her, Pyrrha gave him a tired nod, clutching onto her side.

"Jaune?!" Ruby and Weiss burst out of the bushes surrounding the clearing. "We heard roaring and screaming, so we-" Both Ruby and Weiss saw the dead Ursa and stared at each other.

Dormitory Roof.

Jaune stared at the setting sun, content to let the wind just blow across his face with a gentle breeze, only for the quiet moment to be dashed by a lance of pain up his side. He hissed, hoping that he wouldn't have to put more bandages on. Four layers was more than enough.

He rubbed his hand, a voice in the back of his head still wondering how he was able to block that Grimm so effortlessly. After a few seconds he gave up and shook the thought away, chalking it up to instinct.

"So... how much sap did you end up collecting?"

"Wha!?" Jaune turned around, eyes wide at the sight of Professor Ozpin standing in the doorway with his cane in one hand, and calmly sipping his cup of coffee with the other, staring at him like a Hawk sighting prey.

He hissed and clamped a hand on his side. "Uh, all of it?"

Ozpin didn't answer, still sipping at his cup as he joined the boy, the dying sunlight reflecting on his black-tinted glasses. "Mr Winchester came to my office."

Jaune stiffened, fighting the urge to glance at the enigmatic man. He nervously cleared his throat, knowing how bad a idea it would be to ask. "Uh... sir?"

"About how you saved his life from that Grimm today. A Ursa Major too, not the easiest opponent to fight for someone with your level of skill, Mr Arc."

He didn't reply, instead staring down at the concrete, his eye catching the golden badge on the right breast of his uniform. He grimaced and nodded.

"You and I... we come from similar circumstances."

Jaune frowned and looked up at Ozpin as he continued to sip at his coffee. "S- sir?"

Ozpin spared him a knowing glance, not saying a word.

After a few seconds, Jaune managed to work it out. "You knew the transcript was fake."

"Fake transcripts aren't hard to spot. You need to work on making your lies believable." Ozpin glanced sidelong at him.

His good mood disappeared as Jaune sighed and slumped with a pout. "Great. So how long?"

Ozpin raised a eyebrow. "What do you mean? You're a student at Beacon now, on your first steps to becoming a huntsman."

"Uh... so you're not kicking me out?"

The headmaster sighed, shaking his head with the slightest hint of amusement. "Jaune. While the best and brightest do come to Beacon from skilled backgrounds such as Ms Nikos and Ms Rose, among others, that doesn't mean that we only accept those who have found their calling in life. Being a huntsman or huntress takes resourcefulness and the drive to accomplish your goal." The sun glinted off of Ozpin's dark lenses as he looked at him. "It doesn't matter how you got into Beacon, only what you do now that you are here."

Professor Ozpin glanced over his shoulder, chuckling to himself before smirking at Jaune. "I think you owe Ms Nikos a apology. Good luck."

"Huh-" Jaune turned around but he was already gone, and Pyrrha was already walking towards him. "Hi?"

She gave him a confident smile, looking none the worse for wear after what happened in the forest. "That. Was. Cool."

Jaune loosed a sigh, rubbing his hands together before turning to her. "Look. I'm really really really sorry about all that stuff I said, how stupid I was being, how idiotic I was acting, and I just wanted to say that-"

He stopped at the look of amusement on her. Pyrrha had her head tilted to the side, nodding along with what he said. "Really? A apology?"

"Uh..." Jaune started to fidget, scratching his cheek and shrugging. "That's... all I've got..." After a few seconds his shoulders slumped and he turned away from her. "I've been nothing but a bad leader. And a lousy friend."

He blinked twice as Pyrrha placed her hand on his shoulder and chuckled. "That's not what I saw. In the Emerald Forest, you were able to use what we bring to the team to take down that Death Stalker. Jaune, there's more to being a leader than being the individual who brings victory. A leader ensures the safety of his team and uses their talents to the fullest, above all else, and you did that. And... you kind of did save Cardin and I from a Ursa. There's that. You should feel proud."

"... I feel like you've been saving me all the time, to tell the truth."

"That doesn't change the fact that you are our leader, Jaune. I'll stick by you."

"So any suggestions for the leader of Team Juniper?"

Pyrrha's eyes narrowed as she smirked at him, placing a hand on her hip. "Nora's about to attack Ren's pancakes. If we get back to the dorm we can stop that from happening. Then... Training I think. You've got to work on that shield-arm."

Jaune's smirk matched hers, although tempered by a sigh. "I was afraid you were going to say that."